Welcome to the College of Nurses Aotearoa News Update.
No. 568, Wednesday 10 November 2021
Weekly news round-up of nursing and health information in New Zealand and internationally
New Zealand news
UCOL Whanganui students receive $40,000 in scholarships - NZ Herald
NZ Herald
A new award to recognise a Pasifika student studying nursing, the scholarship was spearheaded by UCOL nursing graduate William Pati, with his wife ...
WellSouth head pleading pay parity for primary care nurses | Otago Daily Times Online News
Otago Daily Times
''Nurses are not talked about enough but they are the people donning the PPE, doing the swabbing and doing the vaccinations, stuff that two or three ...
Hospital parking fee hike a 'kick in the guts' following pay increase, says Wellington nurse ...
NZ Herald
Nurses' union members are "appalled" by a doubling of parking fees at Wellington and Hutt Hospitals, a month after accepting a pay offer from DHBs.
Nurse guilty of professional misconduct after kissing patient while in his care
A nurse has been found guilty of professional misconduct after kissing a patient and asking if he could get on her bed.
The Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal found Vineeth Vijayan Sheela inappropriately touched the patient on two occasions, while working as a registered nurse on the Medical Unit at Nelson Hospital in 2018.
The Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Bill – a chance to submit on pivotal legislation for health in Aotearoa
The Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Bill was introduced into Parliament in October 2021 and a submission process is now underway with a tight 9 December deadline. The Bill introduces major structural changes and will be associated with a suite of new health planning and strategy documents. The aim of this blog is to introduce some key aspects of the Bill and to strongly recommend that the health sector studies the Bill and its implications. We encourage all interested parties to develop submissions for consideration by the Pae Ora Legislation Committee.
Andrew Little says new health entities will be 'set up to succeed'
The Health Minister won’t be drawn on how many millions the country’s new health entities will have to play with, but says both the Māori Health Authority and Health New Zealand will be set up to succeed.
International news
International Council of Nurses (ICN) Releases Revised Code of Ethics
ICN has published a newly revised code of ethics, which covers ethical values, responsibilities and professional accountabilities of nurses and includes a “a greater focus on the role of nurses in global health and the ethical dilemmas the profession faces.”
Trust Us: Nurses Are at the Breaking Point - Scientific American
The pandemic has brought the nursing profession into crisis; the solution is in the public's hands. .
Internationally qualified nurses desperate to work but accreditation too complicated, expensive
ABC News
"If Australia needs the nurses and healthcare workers, why don't they make the process easier for us?" Ms Aguirre asked.
Covid-19 Australia: In the ICU where only Maria is vaccinated, others die in disbelief
In the middle of a row of unconscious coronavirus patients, Maria Roessen is a rare and wondrous sight.
The 66-year-old Australian woman is dressed in a pale blue hospital gown and sitting perched up in a chair in the intensive care unit in Melbourne's Sunshine Hospital under a bubble-shaped plastic hood with monitors attached to her chest and a tube hanging under her nose.
Why the US nursing crisis is getting worse
Burnout, vaccine hesitancy, and plum traveling gigs are making it harder for hospitals to hire the nurses they need.
Aged care / Aging population
Plea for more dementia support and resources to meet growing demand
About 70,000 New Zealanders have dementia, or mate wareware, but that number is expected to mushroom to about 170,000 within the next 30 years.
Health experts are warning that will put an unbearable amount of pressure on our health system, costing nearly $6 billion annually.
Children and young people
Lifelong Health Toll From Childhood Adversity Revealed In New Zealand Research
New research from the University of Auckland shows the lifelong toll that adverse events in childhood can take on your health.
Climate
Health And Climate Experts Warn Of Climate-Related Health Crisis
Glasgow, November 6, 2021:- Health professionals and climate experts from around the world today called for urgent action to tackle the growing climate-related health crisis, during the Global Conference on Health and Climate Change in Glasgow alongside the COP26 UN climate change conference.
Covid-19
NZNO urges booster shots for frontline and vulnerable
The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) wants a programme of COVID-19 booster shots for frontline workers and vulnerable populations put in place as soon as possible.
Covid 19 Delta: 91 Wellington nurses yet to disclose vaccination status as deadline looms ...
NZ Herald
New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) Wellington representative Jo Coffey said this added to their uncertainty in planning for Delta in ...
Covid 19 Delta outbreak: Auckland Hospital couldn't use ICU beds because of short-staffing ...
NZ Herald
Auckland City Hospital couldn't use one out of every five intensive care beds during the Delta outbreak because of a lack of staff.
Covid-19 could cause 'tsunami' of long-term illness, expert warns, as cases rise
New Zealand could be facing a “tsunami of disability” as potentially hundreds of people infected in the Delta Covid-19 outbreak may experience long-term impacts from the virus.
Covid-19: Government workers fail in claim that vaccine mandate breaches human rights
Five government workers have failed in an attempt to claim they have been subjected to unjustified actions in their employment because of the Covid-19 vaccine mandate.
Covid-19: More Pākehā are unvaccinated but Māori are being stigmatised
While Māori are facing increasing pressure from the public to get vaccinated, figures show the ethnic group with the highest number of unvaccinated people is Pākehā.
Long Covid issues continuing to mount
The University of Oxford's Maxime Taquet talked with Sunday Morning on the burdens of long-Covid, including a study he co-authored that has been published in The Lancet with the finding that a third of those who got Covid-19 went on to be diagnosed with long-term health problems.
DHBs
Palmerston North Hospital staff frustrations boil over at board meeting
An explosive exchange at a district health board meeting has exposed the lack of trust medical staff have in management.
All DHBs sign open letter in support of Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 Action Plan
The health sector has rallied behind the Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 Action Plan with 100 academic, health sector and community organisations signing an open letter urging the Government to implement the plan in full.
End of life care
Why everyone should be able to end their life well | Stuff.co.nz
Stuff.co.nz
To begin, the Government should mandate palliative care training for all undergraduate medical and nursing students. All healthcare professionals need ...
Environmental health
Nitrates in drinking water could be killing 40 Kiwis each year, study finds
Nitrates in drinking water could be causing up to 100 bowel cancer cases and 40 deaths in New Zealand every year, new research shows.
Maternity and midwifery
Covid-19: Midwives fight back against spread of vaccine misinformation
Midwives are fighting back against the spread of Covid-19 vaccine misinformation, after a minority of their colleagues promoted inaccurate advice on social media.
Mental health
Ongoing Covid lockdowns cause spike in demand for online mental health tools
Kiwis are turning to online therapies as demand for mental health services continues to climb, but experts warn such supports are a stopgap only.
Assault of mental health staffer at Gisborne Hospital prompts workplace violence review
A staff member on Gisborne Hospital's mental health ward was severely assaulted by a patient, prompting a review that found violence on the ward may be regularly going unreported.
Primary health care
A big tick for Green Prescription from Dr John McMenamin - NZ Herald
NZ Herald
Patients can also ask the GP or practice nurse about a Green Prescription, including how it might work for them. "The GPs and nurses in Whanganui are ...
Public health
Fluoridation of drinking water bill passes third reading
Drinking water supplies across the country are set to be fluoridated after an amendment bill passed five years after it was first proposed.
Associate Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall said she was proud of the bill, which would reduce pain and suffering from dental decay and provide a nationally consistent approach to fluoridation.
Online resources
Global research on coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
WHO is bringing the world’s scientists and global health professionals together to accelerate the research and development process, and develop new norms and standards to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic and help care for those affected.
The R&D Blueprint has been activated to accelerate diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics for this novel coronavirus.
The solidarity of all countries will be essential to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 health products.
Global research database
WHO is gathering the latest international multilingual scientific findings and knowledge on COVID-19. The global literature cited in the WHO COVID-19 database is updated daily (Monday through Friday) from searches of bibliographic databases, hand searching, and the addition of other expert-referred scientific articles. This database represents a comprehensive multilingual source of current literature on the topic. While it may not be exhaustive, new research is added regularly.
Articles of interest
Strategies and interventions that foster clinical leadership among registered nurses: a scoping review protocol,
Isler, Chantille1,2; Maddigan, Joy1,2; Small, Sandra1,2; Jarvis, Kimberly1,2; Swab, Michelle2,3
JBI Evidence Synthesis: October 2021 - Volume 19 - Issue 10 - p 2839-2846 doi: 10.11124/JBIES-20-00342
The objective of this scoping review is to identify and describe strategies and interventions aimed at fostering registered nurses’ clinical leadership in any clinical setting, identify the theories and/or frameworks that guide registered nurses’ clinical leadership development, and describe the types of research conducted on this topic.
The article below is not freely available but may be accessed through databases and libraries to which readers have access. Alternatively SnIPS can provide it on a cost recoverable basis
Implications for clients when nurses view weight as main cause of Type 2 diabetes in primary care.
Smith Cynthia J., McNaughton Darlene A., Meyer Samantha B. (2021)
Australian Journal of Primary Health 27, 404-408.
https://doi.org/10.1071/PY20245
Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is often seen as primarily caused by weight, and its amelioration associated with individual behaviour change, which has the potential for negative consequences for people living with the disease. The aims of this study were to explore how weight was framed by diabetes resource nurses and to determine the implications of that framing for nurse practice in a primary care setting in Australia. The research was a qualitative empirical case study using semistructured interviews with nurses focusing on meanings and interpretations. The findings were interpreted using a constructivist epistemology of both inductive and deductive inference. The study found that nurses viewed overweight and obesity as unhealthy and the primary causes of T2D, and that weight was frequently discussed in the health care encounter. Nurses emphasised individual responsibility through behaviour change to manage T2D, downplaying other known causes such as age and family history and important social inequalities. Studies show that nurses have negative attitudes towards overweight and obese patients. The implications of this research are that the nurses’ views could potentially negatively affect clients’ management of T2D, which has the potential for poor health outcomes.
The above information has been collated for the College of Nurses Aotearoa (NZ) Inc by Linda Stopforth, SNIPS and is provided on a weekly basis. It is current as of 9 November
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